At a holiday party, I met an interesting couple who had retired, moving from Maryland to Florida. Nick, the husband, a career construction worker, had worked for an architect who designed additions and renovations to government buildings and monuments in Washington, D.C.
From the Washington Monument to the Supreme Court to the FBI Building, Nick had worked on so many interesting structures and was well versed in their histories. As a kid, he said, he liked to build things. He got his first construction jobs during summers before he even graduated from high school.
I recently spoke with a young man who works for one of the fiber-optic systems, combining telephones, computers and television. He told me how much he enjoys his job, meeting people all over the state and being well compensated. He never attended college, he added, but with a wife and two small children and their own home, he feels very successful — much more successful than his brother, who graduated from college but was unable to find a job and therefore still is living with their parents.
While it is essential that young people learn skills to allow them to be gainfully employed, not everyone needs to go to college to be successful.
The most important ingredient for success in life is doing something that one enjoys and that will benefit the individual and others. For example, a heart operation requires one chief cardiac surgeon with many subordinates, some highly trained, others with lesser skills but who also perform necessary duties. We need few rocket scientists who want to go to the moon. Rather, we need many who are prepared to improve life on earth.
One major blow to our educational system, which came about in the 1960s, was the near elimination of vocational high schools. Studies have shown that in these schools where students learn a useful trade, there are fewer discipline problems, less absenteeism and certainly more day-to-day satisfaction among students and their teachers.
Today, there are some community colleges that are teaching vocational and technical skills. They not only represent a more affordable alternative to a four-year college or university, but they also give an unprepared or doubtful student an opportunity to test the waters, so to speak, of higher education.
To be sure, a college education, at any age, can provide many benefits — among them an appreciation of literature, art and music; a knowledge of math and science; and a sense of history and philosophy — but only if a student chooses those courses. (Course requirements at many colleges are no longer as strict as they once were.)
College should not be a status symbol for parents who insist on sending unqualified children. Nor should college be for students who have shied away from difficult courses in high school, who hate to study and have low college board scores. Finally, college should not be for young people who would rather party for four years than get a real job.
That being said, there are students, rich and poor, who benefit from college and are successful. But as society becomes more technical and people are living longer, we obviously need more people with technical expertise as well as more people prepared to care for others. A college education is not necessarily required.
There is an old saying: "no work is dirty but that which soils the soul." Nothing could be truer. Yes, we need engineers and architects, doctors and lawyers and teachers, but we also need carpenters and computer technicians, electricians and plumbers, gardeners and landscapers — people who can fix things and people who beautify our surroundings.
Indeed, in a democracy, every young adult should be able to be employed — some after high school, others after college and beyond. But no two people are exactly alike. While college may be right for some, it is not a panacea for all.
Lynne Agress, who teaches in the Johns Hopkins Odyssey Program, is president of BWB-Business Writing At Its Best, Inc. She is the author of "The Feminine Irony and of Working With Words In Business" and "Legal Writing" (Basic Books). Her e-mail is lynneagress@aol.com.